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A really interesting conversation popped up during a meeting with a fintech yesterday. The core of the discussion was around trust and identity – my favourite themes of the moment – and we got into a debate about the fact that most people want freedom and control of their lives. They want privacy and security in their lives. The challenge is how to deliver freedom, security, control and privacy. Is this the job of the State (government) or the individual (you)?
There’s a whole bag of worms there as you expect the State to look after your interests. You expect the State to lock up the criminals; provide healthcare when needed; deliver education for your children; pick up your waste; put out your fires; and more. Well, that much is pretty true except that a lot of humanity resents the role of the State. In many countries, the State acts against the interests of the people (President Assad in Syria a case in point or, equally, some would say Vladimir Putin the same). The State is controlling the people and monitoring and watching them. If you want freedom, then the State is against your interests.
But what does freedom mean? That you can trade drugs without restrictions? You can drive drunk? You can murder without fear of punishment?
It is a balance between freedom and structure; security and privacy; control and anarchy.
This is an age-old discussion, but it is interesting that we live in times today where the individual is at the centre of everything. The network is there to support you; AI is there to support you; technology is there to support you; everything is about you, the individual and giving you control, access, support and freedom.
Or is it?
Some of us would say that the more you have networked through AI and technological connections, the more you can be followed, tracked and traced. A digital identity sounds great if you want fast access to online services, but if you knew that every time you used your digital identity to fast access online services that the government was informed of what you were doing, would you use it so easily?
That led us into the next rabbit hole of why would you be worried about the government tracking and tracing what you are doing if you are doing nothing wrong? Surely, it’s only people who are breaking laws who worry about the government monitoring what they are doing?
But then what about minor things like watching online porn? Are you worried about government monitoring what you’re doing there? Or should you be? And what if it’s not the government that’s monitoring you but the underworld? If criminals have evidence of you doing something indecent, then that’s a ripe space to mine for blackmailing. Remember Shut up and dance in the Black Mirror series:
If I am honest, this will probably the most hotly debated are of the future: the balance between control and freedom; identity and privacy; the State and the individual. In fact, it has been for the past years. It is the core of cryptocurrency: to have a Libertarian dream versus a Statist network. It is the core of digital identity where I remember presenting in Eastern Europe twenty years ago and someone said: “we used to be issued with government identity cards … we don’t want them anymore”.
This balance between control and freedom, security and state, is a critical discussion in world without borders where the network connects everyone.
Related: Amazon and Apple: Brothers in Arms?